Djokovic Races Through Wimbledon Opener

Top seed Novak Djokovic made a strong start in his bid to reclaim the Wimbledon title, dismissing Kazakhstani Andrey Golubev 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 on Monday at the All England Club.

Djokovic, playing his first match since the Roland Garros final, won the first 11 games before Golubev managed to get on the scoreboard. The Serbian broke to go up 5-4 in the third set and wrapped up the victory after 87 minutes. He struck 34 winners and did not face any break points on serve.

"It was a great start," he said. "Obviously first official match on a grass court season this year. Coming into Wimbledon with no official matches, it always gives you an extra reason to get that commitment and focus from the start and try to play as best as you can, so that's what I did. Very, very pleased with my performance overall today."

The World No. 2 will next play Czech Radek Stepanek, whom he leads 10-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including a victory two years ago in the third round of Wimbledon. Stepanek, a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, advanced with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 win over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas.

The 35 year old reached the semi-finals two weeks ago at The Queen's Club, recording his first Top 10 win in nearly two years when he snapped Andy Murray's 19-match winning streak on grass courts.

"This win against Andy in Queen's must have given him a lot of confidence coming into Wimbledon," said Djokovic, who practised with the Czech last week.

"I always thought that his game is very good for this surface because he has a touch, he anticipates well, he comes to the net. He's one of the very few serve-and-volley players nowadays, has this flat forehand. Very good game for this surface."

Djokovic won the Wimbledon title in 2011 with victory over Rafael Nadal and finished runner-up to Murray last year.